


Getting the Hint

by ncfan



Series: Femslash February [21]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends: Knights of the Old Republic, Star Wars Legends: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords
Genre: Albeit only lightly, Bechdel Test Pass, Courtship, Dantooine, Echani Culture, F/F, Female Jedi Exile - Freeform, Femslash, Femslash February, Femslash February 2018, Jedi, Light Side Jedi Exile - Freeform, POV Female Character, courtship rituals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-03
Updated: 2018-02-03
Packaged: 2019-03-13 02:13:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13560516
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ncfan/pseuds/ncfan
Summary: Atris had recently decided to take a leaf out of a certain Echani book. A pity Kalani wasn't getting the hint.





	Getting the Hint

Atris had been a child when her family gave her to the Order, though not so young that she could remember nothing of her home, her family, her people. The Echani considered it a great honor for one of their children to become a Jedi, provided that child was allowed to learn of their ways as well. Truthfully, Atris considered herself ‘Jedi’ well before she considered herself ‘Echani’, but she knew the ways of the Echani. Even if the Echani did not request that the Jedi among their number know of their history and culture, the Order hardly discouraged its members from exploring their pre-Order cultural heritage.

Atris knew the ways of the Echani, though she did not often practice them. She had recently decided to take a certain leaf from a certain Echani book, being at a loss for how to go about it otherwise.

Unfortunately, the other person evolved lacked the framework necessary to take a hint.

“You’ve been very interested in sparring with me lately,” Kalani remarked as they passed over the last hill before the Enclave was out of sight, obscured by rolling hills and grass that swayed gently in the breeze. She tilted her head and peered searchingly into Atris’s face, her bright brown eyes gleaming with curiosity. “I don’t remember you ever being interested in sparring with me until a couple of weeks ago; I don’t remember you being very interested in sparring at all.”

“I am hardly uninterested in lightsaber forms,” Atris retorted, feeling her face grow slightly warm and praying that Kalani wouldn’t notice the way her face had doubtless flushed. Though she knew there was no one within sight, she still found herself surveying the countryside, checking to make sure there were no homesteads in sight, no farmland in sight. No, nothing, not even a dirt road. “I could scarcely call myself a Jedi if I did not apply myself to fighting with a lightsaber.”

Kalani laughed, that sweet, almost musical laugh that made Atris ache with longing, from her head to her fingertips. “Then why is it that up until a couple of weeks ago, if I wanted to spend time with you I had to drag you away from the Archives?” She raised an eyebrow. “At least once, _literally_?”

A Jedi was not supposed to be ruled by base urges, was not supposed to be ruled by attachments to others. Atris was master of herself; she allowed no base urges to master her. But this was different. She could still be master of herself and do this. “If I have been neglectful, please forgive me,” she murmured. “And I don’t wish to spar with lightsabers today. I thought we might do something different.”

Though Kalani was determinedly not getting the hint, she still seemed to grasp at something significant about the request. She looked away briefly, tucking a stray lock of fine black hair behind her ear, before meeting Atris’s gaze. The sun was starting to go down, and her smooth, fallow-colored face glowed gold in the fading light, like a fire had been lit beneath her skin. “And what is that?” Kalani asked softly.

Here it was—not the moment of truth, not yet, but the gate that must be opened to reach it. Atris was silent, resisting the urge to fidget with her sleeves. “I thought we might spar hand-to-hand today; it would be something out of the ordinary for both of us.”

A soft huff of a laugh escaped Kalani’s mouth. “It’s not really new to me, but I’m always ready to try new things.”

Atris nodded stiffly, her blood singing with nervy anticipation. Soon, now, very soon. “Very well. Take a position over there. We’ll begin shortly.”

As the two of them bowed to each other, Atris thought that it would be just her luck if one of the other Jedi from the Enclave came looking for them at just this moment. It wasn’t as though Jedi weren’t ever allowed to leave the Enclave; certain among the Dantooine council actually encouraged the Padawans to go out into the local farming community to cultivate good relations with the people of Dantooine. But there were also those among the Jedi who worried when their youngest went out into the plains without a Knight or a Master to join them.

 _Please, just an hour. Just an hour with no one to interrupt_.

For now, Atris’s luck held; as the sparring session began, she could see no one in any direction. There was only a herd of iriaz far to the west, and a brith flying lazily overhead. _Good_ , she thought almost feverishly. She had no desire to cheapen this with an audience.

The Echani believed that combat was the only true way to know someone. They believed that it was the purest form of expression. Apparently, when you did battle with someone, either seriously or just to spar, vain words and pretenses would be swept away, and all that remained would be the combatants’ true nature.

From the outset, Atris could see the flaw in this philosophy. It was understandable, considering it had been formulated by those who could not wield the Force, but still, surely the best way to understand someone was through the Force, rather than through combat. Still, Atris would hardly deny that there were some things a person only revealed about themselves in battle.

As they sparred, matching blow for blow, Atris found her attention drawn more to the hard muscle under Kalani’s clothing more than the nature of her heart, the way her face flushed and her eyes shone like stars. Given her small size, Kalani was at a disadvantage during hand-to-hand combat against almost any possible adversary, but this never seemed to discourage her. She plied all her strength to the fight, just as she did with any other.

When had it started? They had grown up together here, in this place—and Atris found she did not like to contemplate a galaxy where they were raised in different Enclaves, or one of them was never found by the Order, and they simply never knew each other. When Atris’s feelings had… changed, she did not know. The ambiguity bothered her. Did she not know herself better than this? Could she not define her own feelings more clearly than this?

Whenever it had happened, it had happened. And she was certain that whatever she felt, Kalani felt it too. She would not have proceeded as she had if she wasn’t sure. But oh…

_You’re like a star. You draw everything into your orbit, and you shine so brightly that night seems as day when I am with you._

The light was fading. The sky was fired gold and scarlet, the thin clouds painted dark as night edged closer and closer. As for Atris and Kalani, their shadows stretched before them, dancing wildly at the slightest movement, mingling so completely that it was as though they had never been separate.

Kalani demonstrated the same determination she always showed inside of the Enclave. Even when Atris started gaining ground in earnest, she still pressed forward, watching Atris closely in an attempt to guess what move she would make next. Always trying to stay three steps ahead of her sparring partner, but this time it would not avail her.

At last, Atris knocked Kalani flat on her back, but it wasn’t as clean as she had thought it would be. As she fell, Kalani reached out for anything she could grasp to try to right herself, and her hand found the front of Atris’s shirt; Atris landed gracelessly on top of her, spitting hair out of her mouth and thankful for a whole new reason that there was no audience to this spar.

“So,” Kalani wheezed when she pushed Atris up just enough that she could breathe. “Are you _finally_ going to tell me what this is all about?”

She still didn’t understand. Atris stared down at her, utterly at a loss for words, for anything that could properly express the knot of mingled frustration and despair in her chest. Kalani quirked an eyebrow, her eyes glimmering with something like a silent laugh, and finally Atris just did what she had wanted to do for what felt like an eternity now, and kissed her hard, teeth raking her lower lip. Her mouth was harder than Atris had imagined, less pliant, but that did nothing to dim the cathartic thrill that rang so loud in her heart that she was deaf to anything else.

“Oh,” Kalani breathed when at last Atris pulled away. She smiled widely, her eyes narrowed to slivers of reflected starlight. “You know, you could have just said something.” She wound her arms around Atris’s neck and pulled her back down for another kiss.

“I suppose I could have,” Atris admitted. “I think this way was more instructive, though. Don’t you?”

Kalani let out a startled laugh. “Oh, yes, very!”


End file.
